The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was a comic effort by liberals to counter the influence of Glenn Beck and the Tea Party Movement. The rally took place October 30, 2010, in Washington D.C., and was organized by satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The rally name was similar to Glenn Beck's highly successful Restoring Honor event, but while Beck's rally was a serious gathering of citizens that are concerned about the country, the Stewart rally was designed to mock Americans who support conservatism, and to joke, laugh and have a good time, just days before the Democrats power and influence was crushed at the polls on November 2nd.

Stewart and Colbert originally planned separate rallies, the Rally to Restore Sanity and the Rally to Keep Fear Alive, but they eventually merged them to make the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

Many of the left's supporters of the socialist One Nation rally planned to attend. Estimations of the crowd attendance at the concert by popular rock stars and other entertainment ranged from tens of thousands (initial USA Today report) to about 215,000 (Breitbart and others).[1] This represented a fraction of the comedians' combined television audience. In addition, there was not much of a presence by the trade unions. Domestic terrorist Bill Ayers endorsed the rally,[2] as did President Barack Hussein Obama, although the latter refused to attend. Indeed, almost no major candidate for office was willing to attend.

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Sanity?

Left-wing socialist advocates, such as MoveOn.org, put their support behind the rally. Billed as a non-political rally, immediately following the event, a political MoveOn.org 'Sanity' phone bank was established to get out the vote. One of those groups attending was Students For Sensible Drug Policy. [3] The group pushes the legalization of marijuana. Another discredited liberal group attended was PETA. [4] The Huffington Post returned with transportation for 10,000 plus, Oprah Winfrey donated to the cause by paying all expenses for Stewart's studio audience. [5]Government workers marched at the rally. In defense of their co-workers, government workers and their friends and family were encouraged to join up and march together for the "Government Doesn't Suck March." [6]

Per the Rally To Restore Sanity website,

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Think of our event as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement; the Million Man March, only a lot smaller, and a bit less of a sausage fest; or the Gathering of the Juggalos, but instead of throwing our feces at Tila Tequila, we’ll be actively *not* throwing our feces at Tila Tequila.